Nurse Elisia

Mr Ralph Elthorne, of Hightoft, in the county of Lincolnshire, threw down the knife with which he had given a savage chop at the side of an egg, as if to cut off the top at a bl...

As Neil Elthorne reached the spot where his father had fallen, the horse dashed off at full gallop across the park, followed by one of the grooms, who saw in it something of far...

The roar of the big road sounded plainly, but it was far enough off for it to be subdued into a mellow hum, suggestive to the country sufferer lying in the narrow bed with its c...

Neil Elthorne was more himself as a cab set him down at Sir Denton Hayle's that evening, where the quiet, old-fashioned butler received him in a solemn, old-fashioned way, and u...

"That will not do," said Alison quietly. "_You_ are the doctor, and must be rested and ready when wanted. You had better go to bed and I'll sit up. Aunt Anne wants to, and so do...

The morning broke warm and bright, but the gloom within the fine old manor-house deepened as the facts became more and more impressed on all these that the master would, if his...

"What will he do? what will he say?" panted Elisia, as she hurried across the hall to reach the stairs. Her customary calmness was gone, and one moment she was wild with excitem...

Neil Elthorne had hard work to control himself for, paradoxically, although Nurse Elisia was the most likely personage for Sir Denton to send down to attend his young friend's f...

"Oh, really, Sir Cheltnam, I would a great deal rather you waited till my brother is better," said Aunt Anne, who seemed rather concerned about the sit of a couple of folds in h...

Neil Elthorne's absence from the hospital was rapidly extending to a term of months, broken only by a weekly visit, during the last of which Sir Denton, after hearing the report...

"No, nurse, no. Perhaps better in body, but not in spirit. You cannot understand it. I seem to be a prisoner chained down. My body is here, and my mind is everywhere about the p...

"'Taint that," said the woman sharply, "it's what's done to me here, and the shameful neglect. It's horrid; I'm half killed, and then Mr Neil goes away and leaves me to that hor...

The words seemed to quiver in the silence of the sick chamber as Nurse Elisia uttered what, to the sufferer, sounded like a sentence, the more terrible as coming from one so gra...

Neil Elthorne could hardly recall the events of the next twenty-four hours. He had some dim recollection of walking blindly on and on, with his head throbbing from the mental fe...

"Let her call for help, dear," whispered Saxa. "No," said the stricken man feebly, as he battled hard to recover his equanimity; and the sisters trembled, repentant, over their...

"Garden, I think. No, no. Don't go after her. You'll only scare her away. If you want that to come off, you must be careful. There, walk your horse round and come in to breakfast."

Neil Elthorne was in his father's room when Nurse Elisia returned from her walk, looking agitated and strange. He had found the old man fretful and impatient, full of complaints...

Ralph Elthorne's was an exceptional case, and his moods were many. The principal feeling with him, in the intervals when he was free from pain, was one of irritation against fat...

It was the "master's" desire that the nurse should stay, but there was rebellion among the servants against "master's favourite," and poor Aunt Anne's breast swelled with anger...

And now Nurse Elisia sat in Ralph Elthorne's chamber, her face buried in her hands, the memories of her past life rushing back and a sense of misery and despair increasing, so t...

A fortnight's watching, and the accompaniments of care and skill, had been needed to save Ralph Elthorne from sinking slowly into his grave. The shock of his seizure had wrought...

"Ah," he said, with a faint smile on his pinched lips, "I said `my dear.' Yes; not the way to address one's nurse. It was to the sweet, gentle woman who has tended me with all t...

"Come in," said Aunt Anne, in response to a knock, and Maria Bell entered, to stand for a moment watching while a few entries were made diligently in the housekeeping book. Then...

"For two pins I'd have our things packed up and go back at once, Dan; that I would," cried Saxa Lydon, as she stood before the long cheval glass in the best bedroom at the Eltho...

"Just going down to dinner?" said Ralph Elthorne, as his son came into his room the same evening. "That's right, Neil. It looks like old times. It does me good. Wait a bit, and...

"I hadn't," said Saxa in the same low tone. "I did not think he cared much for me, but I thought him too much of a gentleman, and too loyal."

It was Saxa Lydon who said those words, for the old man's face became suddenly convulsed; his head dropped back, and, as Neil sank on one knee and passed his arm beneath the nec...

As he thought this he heard the clattering of hoofs, and hastened his steps so as to get indoors before his brother rode out of the stable yard with the Lydon sisters, and a gui...

"Well, Isabel," said Neil, in an undertone, as his father was loudly debating with Sir Cheltnam some vital question in which bits, bridles, and surcingles were mentioned again a...

So she took up her pen to write to Sir Denton Hayle, but she did not begin, for it occurred to her that if she did write and ask him to recall the nurse, he would immediately co...

Neil Elthorne had not been a month at the West Coast settlement before he began to find that the funds placed at his disposal by the home authorities would be utterly inadequate...

About half an hour after Isabel and Elisia had parted, Aunt Anne came down from her room. She had tapped gently at her brother's door, which was opened by the nurse, who was as...